Traditionally dragons have had a pretty bad press. Let´s face it, fat, scaley pyromaniacs do not make good fairy/tale heroes.
Recently, however, dragons have been working hard on their PR. Celebrities like Clifford have given the dragon image something of a revamp. In the far off future, where life is a computer games scenario, dragons have become such all round decent chaps that, when the Galaxy is attacked by mechanical nasties, only they stand between the nasties and Galactic domination. But by now the beasties are too nice to be tough.

As you may have gathered, St Dragon doesn't offer anything new whatsoever. However, as a straightforward blaster, it's easily one of the most playable in its field. Even though it has only five levels, each is long and tough enough to tax even the most experienced player. It'll never be regarded as a classic game, but the amazing loading system will definitely go down in history.

Perhaps if there were more than five levels, or more variety within those levels, Saint Dragon would be a more compelling shoot 'em up. Anyone who likes blasters full of surprises won't be disappointed.

However, for some strange reason (not fully understood by scientists), St Dragon isn't the amazing arcade smash it should be. Maybe it's the slightly sluggish gameplay. It could be the fact that the difficulty level is set a few notches too high. Don't get me wrong - St Dragon is a cool conversion - just don't expect the Earth, that's all.

Scrolling shooter with a twist in the tail - a mechanical dragon's tail that is. This is certainly one of the C64's more playable members of the genre, and won't disappoint any discerning joystick-basher.

Saint Dragon is a very well designed shoot-'em-up. The most important element of any game of this genre is its playability and on this score the game can't be faulted. Attention to graphics and collision detection make it easy to be precise about your movements around the screen and there are no annoying background sprite interuptions. Frustration comes from getting shot, rather than getting hit by an alien that's nowhere near you and it therefore has an addictive quality which has been missing from recent arcade shoot-'em-ups. If shooting armoured cows or bullet proof baths appeals to you, try this one for size.

Saint Dragon is a bit of a surprise, really. You don't normally expect a great deal from a budget re-release, so if you find a game that's fun, challenging and also attractive to look at - a bit like Saint Dragon, in fact - it's a bit of a bonus. Perhaps Saint Dragon will remind the software houses of how much fun a good shoot-'em-up has the potential to be.

Bio-mechanoid blasting in abundance with this conversion of the so-so Jaleco coin-op. The main problem here is the level of difficulty - it's too damned hard! Experienced arcade blasters may glean some pleasure from this, but novice gamesters will soon become frustrated. Try it out before you part with the notes.

Yes, there are a million games just like this (1,002,134 to be precise - TMB). You know the sort: kill baddies, get better weapons, kill more baddies, kill big end-of-level baddies, get even better weapons, etc. But this is one of the better ones. Not stunning but quite good. Hmm. That sums it up.

The weak points of the game is it's lack of innovative ideas. It can't compete with genre classics like R-Type and Gradius. If a shoot'em up game is not innovative it should at least score in the audiovisual department - but Saint Dragon fails there too. It isn't a total failure - it surely is a nice conversion.

Lovely graphics, a helpful software autofire option, and a challenging difficulty curve lift this out of the morass of horizontal zappers. The Dynamic Loading System is an infinitely wonderful idea. A bit too tough for most, and the power-ups are unexciting. One of the few sideways-scrolling shoot-'em-ups that you really should own.

Your hardened mindless blast merchants and your smart bomb addicts will find insufficient challenge here, but if you got your 64 for Christmas and you want to tentatively try some serious fire button fever, go for it. It's not a bad place to start.

The galaxy is under threat from a malevolent race of cyborgs: part animal, part machine, all co.. er, all out to be as nasty as they possibly can. Having taken control of most inhabitable worlds, they went on to conquer the planet of the golden dragon, the galaxy's last hope. Then, strangely enough, from amongst the cyborgs themselves rose a solitary rebel, a curious mechanoid dragon determined to halt its former comrades.